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Topic: what's the best flour to use? (Read 2474 times)

I've been making pizza's now for a few months and they do come out pretty decent. However I feel like I'm still doing something wrong because my crust is just not working out. I can't get a nice bubbly crust. it seems to be more of a kinda flat crust. the taste is ok but not airy at all. it's kinda a dense compact crust. I WANT BUBBLY CRUST!!! My dough recipe is as follows 1lb flour,1 tsp Instant yeast, 1 TBL olive, 1 TBL salt. I also tried Tom Lehmans recipe. I've used "00" tipo, GM Full strength bromated, and pillsbury potentate high gluten flour but none seems to work out. I've used Instant yeast, and fresh bread yeast but neither seem to make a difference and have also proofed the yeast to see that it's working. The dough is hand kneaded for apx. 10 mins then i've tried both refrigerating it overnight and tried 3 hrs. on the counter top but still same results. As far as heat goes, my ovens tops off at 550 so I let it heat to temp and wait 15 or so minutes before cooking. I've also blasted the broiler for 10 minutes to really heat the pizza stone but I always get the same result. Not what I want! Does anyone have any suggestions before I cave in and try the No Knead pizza dough because that has to rise for 18 hrs on the counter before use and I don't wanna wait that long for dough.WTH am I doing wrong

scott123

1. Either toss the potentate and 00 or use them for something else like bread. Neither will perform as well as Full Strength.

2. Bubbliness, aka oven spring, is a factor of proper fermentation and an oven setup that will give you a fast bake time.

Is your dough between 2x and 3x the volume by the time you stretch it?How long are your pizzas taking to bake?

The most important contributor to puffy NY style pizza is bake time. No amount of formula/flour/fermentation time tweaking will make up for an improper oven setup. You need to stop bouncing around to different flours, formulas and fermentation times and settle in on one flour (Full Strength), one formula (Lehman), and one fermentation time (2 days) while you test your oven and see how quickly it can bake a pizza.

If you absolutely cannot wait 2 days for dough, then trim it to 1, but, if you want any kind of flavor to the crust, it has to ferment at least overnight.

Unless you knead slowly, 10 minutes is probably too much kneading by hand, and probably a bit of a pain in the butt. Mix until the dough comes to a ball and then knead about 2 more minutes. The dough should look somewhere between cottage cheese and smooth when you're finished kneading.

My dough has definitely doubled + in size before i start forming the pizza which sits on the counter for 3 hrs or overnight in the refridge.

Pizzas cook apx. 10 minutes to achieve some crispness and texture. less time for a softer crust and I'l only use GM Full Strength Bromated flour from now on. I 'll save the other flours for bread and Grissini and I'll knead it for a lot less time then refridge for 2 days

I can wait for two days for the dough. It's not a problem. I'm just getting a little discouraged because it doesn't turn out right.What about the yeast (instant or fresh baker's) is that OK?